Tag: murray

I have always romanticized the European landscape. The books of my childhood were often set a world away, in forests of oak and birch. My forays into the environment around me were guided by these stories, influencing the plants and animals that captured my imagination. Whereas my interest in native flora and fauna was mostly scientific, I found creatures such as foxes and deer almost mythical and the woodlands of Europe fantastical.

This nostalgia for the English countryside also accompanied the colonial settlement of South East Australia and shaped its widespread transformation — the most important result of which was the introduction of a plethora of exotic species. The Australian landscape is an introduced one. Human influence on our environment runs deep. By acknowledging our involvement, we can better come to understand our place in the natural world.

I am drawn and excited by the transformation that happens when the seemingly banal and everyday is transformed into an abstraction by the intervention of the camera. For me, the camera always lies — it is not about truth or fact but “story.” Imagined Lands documents the idealized landscapes that were created to lure and sell property during the boom years of the Celtic Tiger era. The images appeared on hoardings [temporary walls] that were erected to lure potential house buyers and promised a life of bounty and fulfillment. My images create an ambiguous and sometimes wry juxtaposition between the “real” and the “imagined.”